What do health insurance corporations do?

Nurses Activism

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Please tell me what constructive and/or useful things health insurance companies do.

I see they own large buildings throughout the country. What is getting done in there?

I trust my NP or physician to know which tests or procedures I need than an insurance company executive who neither examined nor assessed me.

And I can discuss my healthcare needs with my provider.

You have misplaced your trust. You think that the insurance executive makes a profit for denying service, but the physician doesn't make a profit from providing unnecessary service? Furthermore, you don't need to be examined to determine that somethings are unnecessary.

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The goverment already pays for a majority of the health care in this country. If they weren''t paying money to insurers, who take a huge percentage out for marketing, overhead, and executive compensation (i.e. waste)---there'd be more money left to pay for care for more people.

So it isn't wasteful when hospitals and doctor's offices buy expensive ads or build "Class A" office space or pay themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in "officer" compensation? That makes a lot of sense.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

A physician ordering a cancer screening test is not the same as a hospital putting a fountain in the lobby.

Of course waste is waste. When a hospital lobby looks like a luxury hotel while patients suffer due to short staffing that is not OK.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

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Specializes in Psych , Peds ,Nicu.

If you had two people who could make life or death decisions as to your care , who would you trust ? One who is motivated solely by profit for the insurance corporation or one who as sworn an oath to do no harm ( Hippocratic oath of MD's ). In your replies Jstand , you appear to have almost implicit trust in the insurance companies and none in the actual providers of hands on care.

As I see it , if we must have insurance companies , they should be a conduit of my funds to a provider , they should be able to make a reasonable profit , whilst ensuring I get the care that the physician deems necessary , within the funding that is available .

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It is illogical to assume that because a person criticizes one practice or policy that they approve of all practices or policies that are not being discussed.

A physician ordering a cancer screening test is not the same as a hospital putting a fountain in the lobby.

Of course waste is waste. When a hospital lobby looks like a luxury hotel while patients suffer due to short staffing that is not OK.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

I didn't say that you approved of all practices or policies that are not being discussed. I simply said that you were not fair in charging insurers with responsibility for waste if you didn't do the same with providers. The same goes for pharmaceutical companies as well. I would say that it depends on thet circumstances as to whether a physician ordering a cancer screening test is the same as a hospital putting a fountain in the lobby. If the screening test is unnecessary, it is worse than the fountain and is a far greater waste.

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If you had two people who could make life or death decisions as to your care , who would you trust ? One who is motivated solely by profit for the insurance corporation or one who as sworn an oath to do no harm ( Hippocratic oath of MD's ). In your replies Jstand , you appear to have almost implicit trust in the insurance companies and none in the actual providers of hands on care.

As I see it , if we must have insurance companies , they should be a conduit of my funds to a provider , they should be able to make a reasonable profit , whilst ensuring I get the care that the physician deems necessary , within the funding that is available .

You appear to have implicit trust in providers? Why is that? I would agree with you, I have no trust in the insurance corporation when it comes to my healthcare, but I also have little trust in providers because they have the same motivation, it just comes from the opposite direction. That is the biggest problem when it comes to our society. They have WAY too much trust in healthcare providers. MD's don't take the Hippocratic oath seriously anymore. Either that or they don't see it as doing any harm to throw every test in the book at someone regardless of how much it costs. So NO, I don't trust them. I don't trust the physician to determine the care that is necessary for YOU or for ME because they never are willing to consider the funding that is available. They are only willing to consider what they want to put in their pocket.

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Specializes in Psych , Peds ,Nicu.

At sometime whan you are recieving treatment you have to trust somebody , we are probably discussing nuances in this , but I would rather trust the person with MD after his name than some faceless insurance officer , accepting that both have a financial stake in my care .

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At sometime whan you are recieving treatment you have to trust somebody , we are probably discussing nuances in this , but I would rather trust the person with MD after his name than some faceless insurance officer , accepting that both have a financial stake in my care .

I think you are just missing the point. The point being that the people with MD behind their name have done just as much if not more harm and caused more people to be denied more care by overprescribing and overordering that any insurance exec has ever thought about causing by taking their bonus.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
So it isn't wasteful when hospitals and doctor's offices buy expensive ads or build "Class A" office space or pay themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in "officer" compensation? That makes a lot of sense.

Of course it is wasteful. Money we pay for healthcare should go to provide healthcare.

Please let me agre with you.

Some research and reports:

http://www.calnurses.org/research/

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Of course it is wasteful. Money we pay for healthcare should go to provide healthcare.

Please let me agre with you.

Some research and reports:

http://www.calnurses.org/research/

Thanks. Now can you tell me why single payer is the only way to do it?

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